Einat Amir

During the residency, and for the exhibition In the Wake of the Waves, Einat Amir has produced the installation Even If Myself Cannot Return* (video, sound, installation, 2025).

Einat Amirs video piece is echoing Thomas Mann’s series of radio addresses, recorded during his exile in California in the 1940s to express his anti-Nazi stance, that were transmitted to Germany via radio, and weaves together present-day reflections from cultural exiles – artists from Russia, Israel, Hungary, Turkey, and Iran – who have left their homelands due to profound moral and political conflicts with the local governments. These contemporary voices are met with an excerpt from Mann’s original broadcasts, forming a multigenerational dialogue on censorship, identity, and resistance. Through video, sound, and historical documents, the project invites audiences into a layered experience of displacement, resistance, and the power of communication. One segment, filmed at the Grimeton’s amateur radio shed, reflects on Amir’s own exile – where the highly structured protocols and coded language of amateur radio serve as a metaphor for the challenges of expressing complex, personal truths across distance and cultures. The video is presented along original censored telegrams from WW2 era, reflecting on changing modes of communication and the persistence of censorship.

*The title is a quote from Thoman Mann’s Listen, Germany! 1940

Einat Amir‘s works are in the media of video installations and live performances synthesized with scientific experiments in social psychology and neuroscience. Her art practice examines emotional, social and political aspects of everyday communication between individuals and groups. In her research she focuses on methodologies of collaboration between artists and scientists, proposing an innovative practice, in which both parties are equal forces, allowing themselves and each other the liberties to experiment outside their discipline. 

Amir’s artworks have been shown at; MOMA PS1 New York, PERFORMA13 New York, Manifesta 12 Palermo, Palais De Tokyo Paris, MAXXI National Museum of Rome, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Turkey, NGV Triennial in Melbourne, The 6th Thessaloniki Biennale, Whitechapel Gallery London, The Kitchen New York, Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde, Bergen Kunsthall Norway, Dallas Contemporary Art Center Texas, Fondation D’entreprise Ricard Paris, and Lilith Performance Studio Malmö, among other venues. She is born i Jerusalem, and is since many years based in Finland where she currently holds an Artscience Researcher postdoc position at The Center for Sustainable Ocean Science, Åbo Akademi University.